Corona Devotionals

Sitting on a lake dock the other day, I was taking in the beauty of lily pads and water lilies that surrounded the waters edge. What type of water lily are we today? Some of the blooms were tightly tucked-up within themselves...petals not-yet-unfurled and as yet clenched-shut to the sun's rays and to the day.  Are we this water lily flower today? Exhausted.  Shut down.  Guarded and protective of our hearts...and jaded toward joy because of life's many jabs? So many things in this world can cause our spirit and our faith to clam up...to shrivel back from the world, and even to question God's hope.   And if our faith is tightly clenched today...God rests here with us.   Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  ~Psalm 23:4  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest....

As our oldest child (almost 20 years old) hopped into the shower the other day, I heard him playing music on his phone from behind the closed bathroom door.  He enjoys listening to everything from Christian music to pop, and rock, and country too, but the song he was singing along to was one from his childhood, and I was surprised he even remembered it, let alone had added it to his playlist. “Sing” is a song he learned while watching Sesame Street as a toddler, and you might be able to sing along to it too: Sing, sing a song Sing out loud Sing out strong Sing of good things not bad Sing of happy not sad Joe Raposo, 1971 (Sesame Street) We may or may not be familiar with that song (about singing), but Revelation Chapter 15 says that we ( t hose who will be  victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name ),,,all of us will sing a song.   We will sing it out loud.  We will sing it out strong.  And we will be singing o...

On a boat ride the other day, everyone aboard was searching for water life...and killer whales were at the top of everyone's watch list.  Orcas have been spotted in the area waters, and we set sail with high hopes of glimpsing one or more of these glorious beasts. We never saw an orca, but we did lock in with a large Gray Whale for about 25 minutes, as he rose to the surface to breathe and then fell to the sand bar forty-feet beneath to scoop up mouthfuls of sediment and feast on the amphipod crustaceans within.   Seeing the Gray Whale was fascinating and amazing, but do you know what drew the most oohhs and aahhhs from our family and the other people peering over the side of the boat?  Dolphins .   Porpoises, to be more specific.  We had a number of quick and periodic sightings of Harbor Porpoises, and oh, how they delighted and tickled us!   Not as grandiose or as famed as whales, Harbor porpoises native to these waters happened to be swimm...

Here we go today, Lord.  I am trusting You.  We wake with You today and we walk with You today, Father.  You know what we face and what we fear today, Lord--from circumstances, to deadlines, to people.  Lead us...rescue us, hide us.   Your will is our desire and we actively seek it, Father.  We sit at Your feet and await Your presence and direction for this day.   We depend on You today, Lord.  We refer to You and we defer to You, Divine One.   Make us steady today.   We live and love for You today, Lord.  Show us how...all to the glory of Your Name today.   We don’t fight our battles today, YOU DO, Lord.   Amen. ~~~ Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.  Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. (9) Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me. (10) Teach me to do your will,...

" Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. ( 12) They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.   ~Zechariah 7:11-14 No, Lord!  Don't let it be us!   It's NOT us, Father!   We love you with all our heart and soul and strength today! He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”  ~Luke 10:27 Although we are sinful and imperfect at times, we can truly declare that our heart's desire is FOR YOU, Father!   These Bible verses ( Zechariah 7:11-14 ) are so serious.   Serious consequences for serious offenses to Go...

How fresh is our faith today? How fake is our faith today?   Do we even know the difference?  Maybe we need to get-honest with ourselves...and with our Lord about the authenticity of our faith and our actions for Him.   What we do for the Lord... is it really for Him ?  Or have we grown so accustomed to the routine-of-faith, or even the idea  of it...that we have lost our true lustre for the Lord lately? On the surface, it might sound silly, but God knows our hearts .  And it wouldn't be the first time that His people had gotten used to "acting" in faith instead of actually experiencing/living/thriving in their faith and their love of the Lord. Have we gotten stale in our zeal for the Lord? If yes , then we probably have an inkling about it.   In the Biblical Book of Zechariah , God's people (the Israelites) had been holding yearly festivals  to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction (Zechariah 7:3...